


Finding Direction

by PaulaMcG



Series: Sketches for a Portrait [4]
Category: Harry Potter - Fandom
Genre: Africa, Artist Remus Lupin, Drabble, Drabble Sequence, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Hurt/Comfort, Magic Carpet, Portraits, Teacher Remus Lupin, Werewolf Remus Lupin, travelling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-02
Updated: 2020-06-02
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:00:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24511963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PaulaMcG/pseuds/PaulaMcG
Summary: By 1988 Remus has been found, and he finds what can prepare him for returning to face his past again.
Series: Sketches for a Portrait [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1758325
Comments: 8
Kudos: 4





	Finding Direction

**Author's Note:**

> The first one of these two 100-word drabbles was added as the tenth one in the series of portrait sketches in spring 2007. The second one was written in July 2006, before I got the idea of writing a series of my artist Remus’s tiny drafts for an autobiography, sketches for a self-portrait. This one was originally for the first fanfic challenge (and the prompt _freezing_ ) on the Snitch Forums, my good old fandom home. Later I made small changes in both texts with help from Ishonn, who was becoming my regular beta.

10

The carpet’s gliding at the north wind’s speed. I’m sprawled in perfect stillness until Brünnhilde nudges me. ”You said you’d enjoy the landscapes.”

The sight of her motherly face could substitute for sleep, but... “Seen the sea before.”

“And the Sahara? You’ll paint this.” She rolls me onto my stomach, to peer down over the edge.

The sand glows in breathtaking shades, but... “There’s real work at your school.”

I’m staring in rapture only at the surprise between the late afternoon sun and the side of a dune: our shadow travelling along – this weary tramp in a witch’s healing hands.

11 (Change in Direction)

After the sun has risen behind the barren land’s lonely baobab tree, she drives me – in this renewed but exhausted body – from my isolated shack towards her school. Here the full-moon nights are getting rapidly longer and the raw winds strengthening in earnest now that June’s approaching.

The sun, too, moves from right to left like the hands copying the words of prophets.

Homeless children crawl out of their cardboard boxes, and I am one of the fortunate. My education granted me a roof and responsibilities in spite of my precarious identity, and although I can hardly trust and love.

**Author's Note:**

> These tiny stories are set between my fics [Here I Am Anew](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23132683) and [Anywhere and Back Again](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23511046). In late 1987 Remus has been found by Brünnhilde Pilz, who’s looked for a teacher. We see him again after May’s full moon in 1988 when he’s getting back to the Angolan refugee camp in her car.


End file.
